dj bean

How will Brad Marchand respond to wake-up call?

The Bruins are 3-2-0 through five games. As Tuukka Rask put it, they're "not awful, not great, not bad."

Yet there is some great (the penalty kill, as usual), some awful (the play on which Pavel Datsyuk beat Zdeno Chara on Monday afternoon) and some bad.

The bad would be the team's execution when it comes to putting pucks in the net. Claude Julien lamented the Bruins' inability to finish following their 3-2 loss to the Red Wings on Monday, as the guys the team trusts to score haven't exactly stolen the show.

Jarome Iginla? He isn't shooting well, but he's getting chances. Plus, he's played five games with the team. Ditto for Loui Eriksson, though Eriksson has scored in the last two games and has looked better. None of the culprits should provide reason for concern this early in the season, though it's clear that the player Julien is most trying to wake up is Brad Marchand.

That's why Marchand has skated the last four periods on the third line after being taken off Patrice Bergeron's trio. After playing the third period on the third line Saturday against Columbus, Marchand played all of Monday's game with Chris Kelly and Joran Caron, while Reilly Smith took his spot with Bergeron and Eriksson.

"I think Brad has to find his game first and foremost," Julien said prior to Monday's puck drop. "He’s been a little bit all over the place at times and it’s not the way that Brad normally plays. For whatever reason he’s trying to find his game. I thought [against Columbus] he was better with the north-south type of game, but he still has to move his feet -- he has to get his confidence back.

"Sometimes it’s a coach’s job to take away some of that pressure that a player puts on his shoulders by giving him a little less. When I put him with Kelly, it’s a line that was a hard-working line and a line that keeps it simple."

It's only five games in, but Marchand's statistical start is tied for the worst of his NHL career. His one point through five games is a far cry from the last two seasons (three goals and an assist last season and two goals and two assists the year before) and is more reminiscent of his first full season, when he had one assist through five games while playing on the Merlot Line.

It's the "all over the place" part that's alarming, because Julien first said it early in the preseason, when Marchand and Eriksson had to play without Patrice Bergeron. With Bergeron taking his time coming back from his injuries, Alexander Khokhlachev centered the second line in Eriksson's preseason debut against the Capitals.

Following that game, Julien said that Marchand in particular was all over the place. It made enough sense. He was playing without his usual center and skating in a game with Eriksson for the first time.

When you hear that before the fifth game of the season -- and after the player's been demoted from the second line to the third line -- it's a little more concerning.

As cliche as it is, playing on Kelly's line with Caron allows him to focus on the basics, which happen to be areas in which he excels. He can be good in his own zone and focus more on north-south game. It seemed he and Eriksson were getting crossed up on more than one occasion, so perhaps a demotion and an easier assignment isn't the worst thing in the world.

The results Monday were mixed. The Bruins' top three lines got plenty of scoring chances, but it was a day in which they played particularly sloppy defensively. All three of Detroit's goals could be pinned on poor defensive play from Boston, including a Stephen Weiss goal on which Johan Franzen's pass went past the sticks of both Kelly and Marchand.

The ultimate concern -- if there can be one this early -- is the breaking up of the Marchand-Bergeron-Eriksson trio. That figured (and still should figure) to be one of the top two-way lines in the league, but Marchand seemed to have just as tough a time adjusting to Eriksson as the former Star did adjusting to Marchand.

"Me and Bergy played with a different guy for two years now and Loui is coming from a different system than ours," Marchand said. "Sometimes it does take a little longer to get used to a guy then others, but I thought that Loui is fitting in very well right now, he’s playing very good. He’s got a couple of goals, so we just have got to keep going."

When Marchand gets back on the Bergeron line remains to be seen. The Bruins are off Tuesday and will practice Wednesday in Florida, so perhaps the Bruins can hope Marchand takes the off-day to clear his head and is ready to jump back with Bergeron and Eriksson.

If not, Marchand hopes to work his way through this. Remember, this is a guy who started the 2010-11 season on the fourth line and ended it raising the Stanley Cup as a second-liner and household name. Don't think he feels above any line.

"I don’t think it matters who you play with on this team, we have a great team and everyone’s in the NHL for a reason," he said. "It’s just -- I have to be better, and I know that. It’s been a wake-up call."

It looks like Marchand started to wake up Monday, and while he can take his time returning to form, the Bruins will eventually need the guy who scored 28 goals two years ago and should push for 30 these days.

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